External Cameras Cause Problems for Russian Spacewalkers

A pair of cameras which were scheduled to be fixed to the exterior of the International Space Station today, December 27, have caused problems for two Russian spacewalkers during installation.

The Urthecast cameras, which launched aboard the Progress 53 resupply ship, are designed to send live images of the Earth back to viewers on the ground. They were due to be installed on the exterior of the station's Zvezda Service Module.


A view from a window in Zvezda of today's spacewalk
credit: NASA

Expedition 38 spacewalkers Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy began the EVA at 13:00 Irish Time to get to work on a spacewalk which was scheduled to last seven hours. The duo quickly got to work on getting all their tools in order before commencing the installation of one high resolution camera(HRC) and one medium resolution camera(MRC) on Zvezda.

Kotov and Ryazanskiy, having initially installed the HRC, were told that the telemetry received
from the camera itself by Russian Flight Control Teams in Korolyev, Russia appeared to be in good working order.

However, after installing the MRC a few hours later, the pair were told that telemetry and circuitry received by teams on the ground were not what they should have been, and the decision was then made to uninstall both cameras and return inside the space station in order to try and find a solution and work the problem.

During today's EVA, Kotov jettisoned a cable reel used to install the cameras opposite of the station's direction of travel for disposal.

The space walkers were then instructed to take detailed photographs of the electrical connectors mated earlier for additional review.

In addition to this, an experiment known as Vsplesk, installed in 2008 to measure seismic effects using high-energy particle streams in the near-Earth environment was also jettisoned.

Because of the camera problems, some tasks that were outlined for today's EVA could not be completed. As a result, the spacewalk lasted 8 hours and 7 minutes, which is now the longest Russian EVA ever to be completed.

Today's spacewalk was the third EVA to take place outside the space station this week. However, it was in no way related to the two spacewalks completed by NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins and Rick Mastracchio to replace a faulty coolant pump on the station's starboard truss.

It is unclear as to when the Urthecast cameras will eventually be installed on Zvezda.

More to follow..

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NASA Postpones Cygnus Launch Ahead of Trio of Spacewalks to Repair Faulty Pump Module

NASA has postponed the launch of the Orbital Sciences' Cygnus cargo resupply vehicle to the International Space Station, after the space agency announced that a trio of EVAs will take place outside the station during the Christmas holidays in order to repair a faulty ammonia pump which regulates space station cooling.

Rick Mastracchio tweeted a picture of his EMU

Cygnus, which is making its second visit to the station, was scheduled to launch from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on December 19. Atop an Antares rocket, it will now attempt launch on January 9, with launch occurring no later than January 13 2014.

This postponement will allow Expedition 38 flight engineers Mike Hopkins and Rick Mastrachio to conduct a trio of EVAs outside the orbiting complex in an effort to repair the faulty pump module. These three spacewalks will take place on December 21, 23 and 25. Each EVA will commence at 12:10 p.m. Irish Time.

 They will replace it with an existing spare that is stored on an external stowage platform. The pump is associated with one of the station's two external cooling loops, which circulate ammonia outside the station to keep both internal and external equipment cool.

This is the same pump which was repaired by Expedition 24 flight engineers Doug Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson, after completing three spacewalks in 2010.

More to follow..

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